D.C. Mayor Gray seeks to move on after probes

The announcement was one of several long-term goals the mayor has unveiled in recent months, maintaining a strict focus on city business while the specter of further action by Mr. Machen’s team lingers in the background.

Turmoil around the probe crested in the summer when a Gray campaign aide, Eugenia C. Harris, admitted in court that she managed straw donations and undocumented funds to get out the vote in 2010. The revelations prompted three council members to call on Mr. Gray to resign.

When a reporter asked Mr. Gray on Wednesday whether he plans to still be in office to see his five-year economic development plan through, the mayor did not give a direct, affirmative answer, but did say he needed to be “visionary” and kick-start the plan.

“Whether I’m here or not,” he said, “I think we have carved out a direction.”